D. S. Merezhkovsky as the disputing party about Pushkin and Pushkin anniversary (on material of the article "Pushkin's holiday")

The article “Pushkin's Holiday” by D.S.Merezhkovsky was dedicated to Pushkin's anniversary. It was published in 1899 in the “Art World” (vol. 2, No. 13-14). “A note about Pushkin” by V. Rozanov, “Pushkin’s testaments” by N. Minsky, “To the all-Russian celebration” by F. Sologub appeared in the same issue of the journal. It's fascinating that Merezhkovsky’s article is the whole repetition of the title “Pushkin's Holiday” (Letters from Moscow. June, 1880) by G.I.Uspensky, which was printed after the commemoration of the poet. Having focus on the direct continuity, dialogic was expressed in that Merezhkovsky’s article as well as Uspensky’s article was written about the idea of “the Pushkins’s monument” and the anniversary celebrations dedicated to the first poet of Russia. The difference is that Uspensky writes about an accomplished fact (June 6, 1880, the opening of the Pushkin’s monument in Moscow created by Opekushin), while Merezhkovsky says only about intention to do for people’s money a new all-Russian monument to the genius. Conclusion. Specific semantic polyphonism of the article is created due to the fact that various dialogic models play pivotal role in this composition. The critic leads controversial dialogue about Pushkin with his contemporaries: V.Spasovich, L.Tolstoy and V.Solovyov. Merezhkovsky believes that these interpreters of Pushkins’s creations are simple, distort and underestimate the legacy of the first poet of Russia.